The present invention relates to replaceable vacuum cleaner bags and, more particularly, to a replaceable vacuum cleaner bag which optionally adds deodorant to the air passing therethrough.
Several products are available that allow the users of vacuum cleaners with disposable vacuum cleaner bags to add an active ingredient to the air which is filtered by their vacuum cleaners. The active ingredient is, broadly speaking, a deodorant. As used herein the term "deodorant" includes true deodorants (which actually neutralize the offending smells), re-odorants (which do not actually neutralize the offensive smells, but rather add more acceptable fragrances into the air to mask the offending smells) and disinfectants (which through their antibacterial activities tend to eliminate the source of the offending smells).
Previous efforts to develop disposable vacuum cleaner bags which would dispense such active ingredients as deodorants into filtered effluents (such as the air passing through the vacuum cleaner) have apparently encountered at least two difficulties: the requirement that the effective action of the active ingredients must be sustained over extended periods of time (including store shelf storage prior to purchase and home storage prior to initial use), and the unacceptably high expenses involved in uniformly applying the requisite high saturation levels of expensive active ingredients.
From a commercial point of view, while most prospective customers will be attracted by the capability of dispensing an active ingredient such as a deodorant into the air passing through the vacuum cleaner, there are those who, at least at one time or another, as a matter of preference or for health reasons, would prefer not to release the active ingredient into such air. While the manufacturer of the bag could make two different bags--one which dispenses the active ingredient and another which does not--the economics of manufacturing two products versus one product and the competition for shelf space in the retail sales outlets suggest the advantages of a single product which will or will not dispense the active ingredient into the air, as desired by the ultimate user. In other words, despite the extra expense involved in adding to the air an active agent dispenser to each vacuum cleaner bag, it is more economical and makes better business sense to make a single product which affords the ultimate user the option of adding the active ingredient or not, as he/she wishes, than to have to manufacture, ship, and stock two different products, one with the dispenser and one without.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable vacuum cleaner bag which, at the option of the ultimate user, either will or will not release an active agent into the air passing through the vacuum cleaner.
Another object is to provide such a bag which does not release the active agent until the decision of the ultimate user and therefore does not waste the active ingredient during storage prior to initial use (both prior to and after purchase).